Facebook User ROI

If market estimates are right, ROI on Facebook advertising is nearly $14 per user. That calculation results from using the current market valuation of $260.3 billion divided by the 1.49 billion number of social network account holders, then dividing that $178 per-user valuation by the $12.76 eMarketer says marketers are spending on each user worldwide.

Of course, some campaigns may be smarter and yield more than others, employing lookalike audiences and targeting more active users, such as the mobile Millennials who spend an hour a day on the site and the 30 million mothers on social networking sites, according to Marketing Land, comScore and eMarketer. Plus, some locations are worth more to marketers than others. “Facebook's ad revenue per user will reach $48.76 this year in the U.S.,” eMarketer reports on Wednesday.

“[Facebook] is the top overall app in users — 125 million in the U.S., according to comScore — and engagement,” according to an article published Thursday on Marketing Land, citing comScore figures. “Nearly 50 percent of mobile users use Facebook more than any other app, and for almost 80 percent of people, it’s one of the top three most-used apps.”

eMarketer research

Perhaps that’s why on Wednesday, eMarketer reported that where consumer eyeballs are is exactly where marketers want to be.

A February 2014 post on Forbes.com that stops at monetary calculations per user value notes the same problem with these generalizations — in this case, about all social media users.

“These calculations blend each social media company’s user base into one homogenous average,” writes George Anders. “There’s no effort to distinguish between star users who create lots of widely followed content, as opposed to nearly worthless accounts that don’t engage much with the site. Not to mention any bot-controlled accounts that haven’t been expelled yet.”